Winter's Yearning Dicussion Guide Background Information
Background Information

KALAALLIT NUNAAT: LAND OF THE PEOPLE
Kalaallit Nunaat, also known as Greenland, is the world’s largest island as well as its least densely populated country. The total population is about 56,000 with more than 88% of Greenlanders of Inuit descent. The official language, Kalaallisut or Greenlandic, is spoken by the majority of the population, and the country’s name, Kalaallit Nunaat, translates as “land of the people.” Despite its geographic location in North America and predominantly Inuit population, Kalaallit Nunaat remains a self-governing, autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark – a status which, along with the name Greenland, is among the lingering remnants of its long history of European colonization.
Kalaallit Nunaat is located between the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Iceland with two-thirds of its land mass within the Arctic Circle. Three-quarters of the island is covered by the largest permanent ice sheet outside of Antarctica that stretches over 660,000 square miles and reaches over two miles deep in some areas. Evidence shows that climate change is shrinking the ice sheet, affecting the stability of Greenland’s local environment and contributing to global sea-level rise.
The melting ice is also making a range of valuable natural resources from hydropower to uranium and oil deposits accessible for the first time. The unexpected economic opportunities made possible by the changing climate may offer Kalaallit Nunaat a path to long-awaited political and economic independence, but they come with unprecedented environmental and political challenges for this country and its people. According to a joint 2019 study by the University of Greenland and the University of Copenhagen, the climate crisis is having an adverse impact on the population’s mental health and sense of social stability in a country already struggling with high rates of unemployment, substance abuse, and suicide.
MIGRATION AND COLONIZATION
Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) has experienced waves of migration for more than 4500 years. The earliest known inhabitants were paleo-Inuit cultures including the Saqqaq and the Independence I & II and the Dorset which established communities between 2,500 BCE through 1,400 CE. The Thule culture, ancestors of the modern Inuit, migrated from modern-day Alaska and were established in Kalaallit Nunaat by the 13th Century.
It is believed the Dorset and later the Thule Inuit communities encountered the early Norse explorers beginning in the 10th century. Evidence shows that at the time the Norse established settlements on the southern coast of the island, naming the area Greenland, the climate was warmer and more suitable for farming. By the 15th century, however, the Norse settlements were abandoned, possibly due to changes in climate, prolonged drought, geographic isolation, and depleted resources.
Inuit communities continued to expand across Kalaallit Nunaat, but no further European attempts were made to colonize the island until 1721 when Danish missionary Hans Egede set out to contact the Norse community. Finding the settlements abandoned, Egede established a Lutheran mission and trading company near the present-day capital city, Nuuk, ushering in Kalaallit Nunaat’s colonial era. In 1776, the Kingdom of Denmark declared a trade monopoly on the island’s resources and closed the coast to foreign access for the next two centuries.
HOME RULE, SELF GOVERNANCE, AND THE PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
Following World War II, Greenlanders increasingly pushed for greater autonomy and improved quality of life. Although the colonial status of Greenland was lifted in 1953, the era that followed introduced a series of reforms and policies aimed at more fully integrating the country into the Kingdom of Denmark and “modernizing” Inuit society. These reforms provided infrastructure and social services but also included programs that inflicted lasting damage on Kalaallit Nunaat society, including cultural suppression, increased urbanization, imported Danish labor, forced sterilization of Inuit women, removing children from their families to raise them under the “civilizing” influence of Danish foster parents, and resulting in Greelanders losing cultural identity and language .
In 1979, the citizens of Greenland voted in favor of home rule. They became an “autonomous constituent country” of the Kingdom of Denmark gaining greater control over domestic affairs such as education, health, fisheries, and the environment while Denmark retained control of the legal system, foreign relations, and defense. Denmark also provided an annual economic subsidy to the country but retained partial rights to the island’s resources.
Over the following 30 years, the movement for greater independence grew, and in 2009 Greenlanders voted in favor of a self-governance referendum. They took control of the legal system, foreign relations, trade, and natural resource management and made Kalaallisut the official language. They also gained the right to declare full independence from Denmark. Despite an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders supporting full independence, that would mean losing Denmark’s support, including an annual economic grant which accounts for a third of the government’s budget.
Independence and self-determination would require Kalaallit Nunaat to establish new revenue streams beyond its dependence on fisheries. As climate change threatens the stability of fish stocks and Greenland’s ice sheet, it also provides new but environmentally and politically risky opportunities to access the wealth of valuable natural resources once buried under the ice. Resources that powerful countries and corporations are eager to tap and control.
MANIITSOQ: ONE TOWN’S STORY
Maniitsoq is situated on an island off the Greenlandic west coast, approximately 93 miles from the capital Nuuk. The town has 2,582 inhabitants which make it Greenland’s fifth largest town. Maniitsoq played a major role in Greenland during the 1980s and 1990s and was Greenland’s most important fishing town. At that time, Maniitsoq was the place to be, and the population exceeded 3,200. But during the late 1990s, cod stocks collapsed, and the heart of the town, the fish factory, was forced to close. When the directors started filming, the unemployment rate was high, stores were closing, and population numbers were diminishing perceptibly. Today, as the cod stocks recover, Maniitsoq is also recovering, and the fish factory has re-opened. However, the unpredictability and vulnerability of the fishing industry necessitate identifying other possibilities for income in the future.
THE ALCOA PROJECT
In 2006, the American aluminum giant ALCOA signed an agreement with the home-rule government of Greenland to build an aluminum plant in Greenland. In 2008, Maniitsoq was chosen as the site due to its enormous potential for hydropower. The aluminum project would entail dramatic changes for the town, including a doubling of the population from all the foreign workers who would arrive for the plant’s establishment; hence, Maniitsoq’s appointment of an aluminum coordinator to plan the process and involve and inform all citizens. But due to the financial crisis, the price of aluminum fell 47 percent for the period 2008 – 2015, and ALCOA has postponed the project indefinitely. Today, ALCOA retains all rights to the precious hydropower.